Which is the safest wallet to use for long term offline storage?

[batang_bitcoin]

Which is the safest wallet to use?

 I'm buying a laptop that will always be offline and used just to store my bitcoins. I'm wondering which would be the safest wallet to use to store the coins.

This is a good idea and I'm also planning this to do so. No other transactions, applications/sofware should be installed for that laptop. It will be your very own storage. Just make sure you hav safe vault for the laptop for safekeeping. And I have my choice which is bitcoin core for the wallet. I guess all of them are safe so its base on my own comfort.

[zend7]

There is nothing that can compete with Trezor or Ledger Nano S for long term storage, online or offline. Of course these are hardware wallets so they have an initial cost but anyone who is looking to conserve their coins for a really long time need to buy one of these, now with the price of bitcoin this up they only cost about 0.06 for a Trezor even cheaper and about 0.025 a Leder Nano S.

If you can't afford a hardware wallet then paper wallets or any other wallet who supports cold storage like Armory,Electrum etc. I insist on the hardware wallet though because it is a hassle free experience.

[cryptoheadd]

There is nothing that can compete with Trezor or Ledger Nano S for long term storage, online or offline. Of course these are hardware wallets so they have an initial cost but anyone who is looking to conserve their coins for a really long time need to buy one of these, now with the price of bitcoin this up they only cost about 0.06 for a Trezor even cheaper and about 0.025 a Leder Nano S.

If you can't afford a hardware wallet then paper wallets or any other wallet who supports cold storage like Armory,Electrum etc. I insist on the hardware wallet though because it is a hassle free experience.

From what I can understand, your Trezor wallet is backed by a paper wallet. (The 12 seed words)
How does Trezor keep your coins safe in the long term?

Wouldn't it be equivalent to creating a securely made paper wallet? (For long term)

[gamerfan]

Which is the safest wallet to use?

 I'm buying a laptop that will always be offline and used just to store my bitcoins. I'm wondering which would be the safest wallet to use to store the coins.

Yes, an offline laptop is a good choice. Then you can put Electrum on it to store your coins.
For a better security you should write your seed on a piece of paper and store it in a safe place (even better if you remember it in your brain). Also, you may consider to save a copy of your wallet and export your private keys. It's very easy to do it with Electrum.

[nexttime]

I think to store bitcoin we should use some laptops to make paper wallets..can use many different laptops but i prefer to use Ledger Nano S

[Cosbycoin]

a laptop just for bitcoin, that works as a private bank, was also my idea, but i opted for a less cumbersome way like the simple usb stick, the key is just to be offline

but with a laptop you can use your coin if you want, if the environment is secure enough

Oh this is way risky using a USB drive for your wallet keys.
I will never use it and even advice it to someone to use a USB stick for this purpose because the usb is not a reliable source it can be corrupted at any time and could be lost as well.  The laptop is on one of the best option for securing your key in it.

[gandame]

Some saying that offline wallet is the best and safer to stored the bitcoin. But i think no one is safe because as we can see that offline wallet and online wallet are the same that someone work on it.
Its look like a bank all bank are not safe to stored your money because once bank closed you will have a big problem how to return your money.

[BitcoinNewsMagazine]

The most important thing is to always update the security of the Laptop and prepare periodic data backups. The case of ransomware should be a lesson on how to secure data including wallet.

dude he's talking about an offline computer, which is the only safe way to keep coin safe. keep to the topic, huh?

@op how the big boys roll: http://trilema.com/2013/how-to-airgap-a-practical-guide/

Using Armory on top of Bitcoin-Qt was how we used to do cold storage with two computers. One had your private keys on the offline computer, with a watching only wallet on the online half. Shuttle your transactions back and forth on a USB to sign and broadcast. Pretty much everyone switched to using Trezor when they came out in 2014. Then Ledger came along. There are still die hard Armory fans but most recognize the convenience and security of a hardware wallet. Trezor and Ledger have a hard time keeping them in stock.

[fan_of_things_and_stuff]

Why buy an entire laptop? Couldn't you just get another (maybe external, maybe internal) hard drive, put your wallet there, then take it off the base machine?

[squatz1]

Paper Wallet or a Desktop wallet that is backed up on something that is paper or something along those lines is going to be your best bet when it comes to longevity. I wouldn't know if I'd trust something that's goibng to be a hardware wallet as who knows what they make those with and in the end if it breaks or something you're going to be left with a paper wallet backup anyway, so you're kinda left in the same case.

Though, if you're going to be using a paper wallet I'd try to have as many backups as you can in multiple SECURE locations. I have this for SOME of the BTC that I have, it Isn't much at this point but I think it's pretty cool IMO.

[BitcoinNewsMagazine]

Paper wallets are the most cumbersome way to hold bitcoin long term. You have to take precautions that the private key is not exposed during creation or spending that you avoid with hardware wallets.

[SonnetStar]

In my opinion the safest long term holding is in hardware wallet such as ledger or trezor and then put the key to that backed up in like a safety deposit Box

Paper wallet is pretty safe too

[kaijialex]

I think you can use a light wallet like electrum to create your wallet, store the secret seed on some paper and back-up the wallet on some CD or a usb stick in a safe place.

[ImHash]

What ever you do and how ever you store your bitcoins they will end up in a private key, one of the most convenient methods to store bitcoins for me of course after having a core wallet on a separate computer is generating addresses offline using bitaddress.org then saving addresses with their keys.
Another option which is convenient as well is visiting directory.io and entering a random page like: directory.io/30866184577
and picking 10 addresses with their keys and saving them in a text file.

[daemonfox]

What ever you do and how ever you store your bitcoins they will end up in a private key, one of the most convenient methods to store bitcoins for me of course after having a core wallet on a separate computer is generating addresses offline using bitaddress.org then saving addresses with their keys.
Another option which is convenient as well is visiting directory.io and entering a random page like: directory.io/30866184577
and picking 10 addresses with their keys and saving them in a text file.

Even I cringe at this... I just CAN't for the LIFE of me allow someone else to hash a BTC privkey for me and serve it through HTTP... no, just no, I won't do it.

You want ULTIMATE security, you use a paper wallet. You do that by making your OWN offline keys using Vanitygen on a PC with no internet connected. Put the keys on paper, in triplicate, store, and just send all your BTC to that address.

Then when you are ready to start using it, all you have to do is import that privkey into ANY wallet and the coins will be there.

Second time I have posted this here... there is no safer way... not even hardware wallets, laptops, hard drives, USB... none of it. All have failure points. A paper wallet's only failure point is your failure to be secure about storing them.

[streazight]

The most important thing is to always update the security of the Laptop and prepare periodic data backups. The case of ransomware should be a lesson on how to secure data including wallet.

dude he's talking about an offline computer, which is the only safe way to keep coin safe. keep to the topic, huh?

@op how the big boys roll: http://trilema.com/2013/how-to-airgap-a-practical-guide/

Yeah many of the people are talking about to use a hardware wallet and also for the cold storage the paper wallet.
I know that electrum is one of the best private wallet to use it is more secure and it needs not enough space as well you can easily keep it in the laptop and even in the android phone if you are a skilled person.

[taxmanmt5]

In my opinion the safest long term holding is in hardware wallet such as ledger or trezor and then put the key to that backed up in like a safety deposit Box

Paper wallet is pretty safe too

Paper wallet is good. Also do not listen to the people on here that have no known track  record for success.  A flash drive is fine provided that you have another back up and that the drive is stored in the proper method.  We have two cases of properly stored flash drives that have more than 1000 wallets of different coins, more than 10 BTC's worth of value and they have never failed when being pulled out and put to use.

[Cosbycoin]

Use the laptop to create paper wallets and never go online with it again. If you want to re-use it, buy a new hard drive and substitute the hard drives when you want to go online. Just remember that paper wallets have to be printed and laminated, if you want to store them for long periods. {Cool & Dry place} Do not generate them and keep them in digital format for long periods. {electronics can fail} The printer you use, is also a possible risk factor. < It has built in memory or cache and can be read once it is online, so buy some cheap old printer that will stay offline too >  ^smile^

Wow this is a great idea. This is something really cool. I wish I could tell you the exact number of the Bitcoins that I am holding but unfortunately in this system one can’t trust because the data can be hacked anytime and it is easy for the hackers to loot all the holdings. But anyway your idea is a nice one.

[fan_of_things_and_stuff]

Maybe this is a stupid question, but what is the advantage of taking it out of an online wallet like Coinbase? Is it just that you are afraid that the provider might get owned and lose your $$?

[cryptoheadd]

Maybe this is a stupid question, but what is the advantage of taking it out of an online wallet like Coinbase? Is it just that you are afraid that the provider might get owned and lose your $$?

Yes, that's exactly what the reason is.
Storing your Bitcoins on an online wallet is not safe as all as they might get hacked. (Has already happened a lot times.)

Also, Coinbase is known for freezing customer accounts without giving any reason. (Which sucks)

Storing Bitcoins in an HD wallet is safer, because you control your own Bitcoins.